Boeing's Japan battery maker shares rebound after agency's comments

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

TOKYO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Shares of GS Yuasa Corp, which makes batteries for Boeing's Dreamliner, rebounded after Japanese safety officials said the manufacturing process did not cause problems inside the battery on the aircraft that made an emergency landing in Japan this month.

GS Yuasa shares were up 0.9 percent on Tuesday morning, outpacing the benchmark Nikkei average, which slipped 0.3 percent. They extended Monday's 4.8 percent surge, their biggest one-day percentage rise in eight months, after the comments by Japanese investigators.

"There were several reports on quality control issues, but there was nothing that would have caused an immediate problem inside the battery," Shigeru Takano, director of the air transport safety unit within the aviation safety and security department at the Civil Aviation Bureau, said on Monday.

Takano said investigators did not find anything that would be related to a recent string of battery mishaps on board Boeing Co's new lightweight aircraft.

GS Yuasa shares are still down 4.9 percent since the battery of an a 787 Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines Co Ltd caught fire while parked at Boston's Logan International Airport on Jan. 7.

U.S. safety regulators said on Sunday that "no obvious anomalies were found" in their initial investigation of an undamaged battery aboard the JAL plane in Boston and that a more detailed examination would follow.

Authorities around the world grounded the carbon-composited Dreamliner and Boeing halted deliveries after a problem with a lithium-ion battery prompted the All Nippon Airways 787 into the emergency landing at Takamastsu in western Japan on Jan. 16.